1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assist grip for a vehicle for reducing a physical burden of an occupant at the time of getting out of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed an assist grip for use in getting out of a vehicle, in which a nearly L-shaped assist grip main body is pivotally and retractably attached to a recessed part formed in a certain place of a rocker panel positioned on the side of a seat back of a seat, said assist grip main body being loaded with a coil spring so that it may be biased toward a stored position when not in use, but may be raised up to a upright position when in use (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-052834).
According to the conventional art, an occupant, after having opened a door at the time of getting out of a vehicle, uses a finger hook part formed in the assist grip main body to bring the grip main body into an upstanding state against a restoring force of the spring. At that time, the occupant is allowed to get off safely since the grip main body is locked due to an engagement concave portion of the rocker panel being provided in a manner engageable with a projection of the assist grip main body, thus providing a sense of reassurance when operating the assist grip.
Also, there is disclosed a support apparatus for supporting an occupant when he/she gets in or out of a vehicle (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-202120), in which a seat of the occupant is provided, at a side thereof, with a casing that is open at both a lateral side and a top side of the seat, such that a support member serving as a gripper is installed in a manner upstanding inside the casing, and the occupant is free to perform the ascending operation of the support member while the descending operation thereof is able to be locked at a predetermined position by using a one-way lock means, thus enabling the occupant seated on the seat to perform ascending and descending operations of the support member safely and easily.
According to these conventional assist or support apparatus, however, since the occupant needs to allow the assist grip main body to be raised from a stored position up to an upright position, or otherwise, the occupant needs to perform height adjustment of the gripper by him/herself according to his/her own physique, every time he/she uses it, and hence, there arise burdens for children, elderly people, etc at the time of use.
Moreover, since the conventional assist or support apparatus has a support or gripping part on the top of the rocker panel or the end of the main body of the seat in a vehicle, there is a problem that a position onto which the occupant's weight is shifted at the time of getting out of the vehicle is restricted to the neighborhood of the seat.